Judi Dench sculpture proposed for York cycle path

A sculpture of York-born actor Dame Judi Dench has been commissioned for a cycle path which runs through the city.

Cycling charity Sustrans is installing a series of artworks along England's National Cycling Network.

Last year the charity invited the public to have their say on who should be represented in York.

As well as Dame Judi, cycling campaigner Dave Jackson who helped build cycleways in the city, was chosen.

The steel figures were made following funding from the Department for Transport, to mark Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee in 2022.

Dame Judi Dench, 88, was born in the Heworth area of York. She was a pupil at the The Mount School in the city, which she revisited in 2000 to lay the foundation stone for a new school sports hall.

In the same year she was awarded the Millennium Person of the Present award at York's Mansion House and a riverside walk in the city was named after her.

A spokesperson for Sustrans said Dave Jackson, 75, who was also born in York, had "dedicated 31 years of work" to the walking, wheeling, and cycling charity as a construction and maintenance manager.

The spokesperson said a highlight of Mr Jackson's career had been his involvement in the creation of the York to Selby route in 1984, which was the first path built by the charity.

City of York Council planning documents state the installation consists of a timber bench, a portrait of each of the subjects cut out of sheet steel and an information board relating to the subjects and the cycle route.

If approved the figures will be placed on the cycle track at Bishopthorpe, three miles from the city centre.

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